Ken Roque

[Dojji]

I'm not sure what to make of this guy. Supposedly he's gotten himself together recently in the GCL and at age 19, he's got a chance to rise, on the other hand, even 19 is a little old to be in the GCL, he hasn't been playing full time, and he's only hitting .248 on the year with little power or speed.

 

Is there anything here worth a second look or is this just a guy marking time before he goes back to whatever he was doing before he was drafted?

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Kenneth%20Roque&pos=2B&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=519226

[Dipre]

Why do you do this to yourself?

[Jacoby_Ellsbury]

Why do you do this to yourself?

Who cares? What's the harm in it? At worst, its discussion fodder.

[Dipre]

Who cares? What's the harm in it? At worst' date=' its discussion fodder.[/quote']

 

I'm joking, a700 incarnate.

[Dojji]

I'm just curious. Was wondering if anyone knew anything about the giy.

[Dipre]

I'm just curious. Was wondering if anyone knew anything about the giy.

 

Never in my life, and i follow the prospects pretty closely.

[Dojji]

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=519226

 

The season is over so I got curious again and decided to go see how he finished uo.

 

Finished up with pretty decent season numbers. .907 OPS mostly in rookie ball is pretty impressive even at 19YO and if you look at the opening post, it's pretty clear Roque came on like a house afire down the stretch. Finished with 17 walks to 23 strikeouts -- that ratio improved drastically down the stretch as well. He keeps doing that, he might attract attention from more than just the odd prospect freak.

 

He might just be worth watching next year. He'll probably play for Lowell in his age 20 season. if he starts to roll, that's not too old to start climbing the ladder in earnest, and we're not exactly overloaded at 2B. I don't know if he's more than a one month wonder, but I'm officially intrigued.

[The_Destroyah]

People make fun but one day Dojji is going to call an extremely underated prospect and everyone will have to eat their fair share of crow, I really hope that day comes soon for you Dojji, as for the prospect in question he despite where he was playing is 19 YO alot can happen you never know.

[CrespoBlows]

People make fun but one day Dojji is going to call an extremely underated prospect and everyone will have to eat their fair share of crow' date=' I really hope that day comes soon for you Dojji, as for the prospect in question he despite where he was playing is 19 YO alot can happen you never know.[/quote']

 

He'd still be 1/50 correct.

[Dojji]

Roque earned the Soxprospects.com All Star award for second basemen in the Sox organization.

 

In fairness, the competiton was not precisely stiff.

[BoSox21]

Roque earned the Soxprospects.com All Star award for second basemen in the Sox organization.

 

In fairness, the competiton was not precisely stiff.

 

im pretty sure it came down to Roque and the bum who keeps saying "you stole my blueberry pancakes" to everyone who walks by him

[Dojji]

On the other hand, as a middle infielder with a .900 or so OPS he would have beaten competition that was a fair bit stiffer than he actually faced.

[BSN07]

D-3 prospect on the " Dojjita scale":D

[Dojji]

Yes well, we are smarting for middle infield prospects. He's young enough that I really shouldn't be the only one who starts to take notice of Roque.

 

I'm not exactly holding my breath here, but that was an impressive showing against more or less age appropriate competition.

 

Besides, his name is Ken Roque. So he's got the cool name thing going for him.

[jacksonianmarch]

Short season, as nice as it is, can be very, very misleading. I have two examples for you from the yankee side. Justin Snyder and Braedyn Pruitt.

 

Pruitt, drafted in 2007, hit .347 with a .907OPS in the NYP. He hit around .200 with a sub .600OPS the following yr and was cut.

 

Snyder, drafted in 2007, hit .335 with a .936OPS in the NYP. The following yr, he actually was serviceable. He made it to AA this yr, where he hit under .200 over 236ABs.

 

There is a reason why a lot of these unheralded guys are unheralded. The majority of them have marginal skills and a hot month in the short season leagues gives them ridiculous numbers. But once they hit long season and a hot month doesnt really alter the stats as much, they are exposed. Its a nice start for a young kid, but it is WAY too early to start thinking about him in the red sox future. Way too early.

[Dojji]

[table]Topic|Team|Content

Prospect|Yankees|The player in question is made of 150% pure awesomeness. Fear us.

Prospect|Sox|He could be good, but this is why he won't be.

Signing|Yankees|This is the missing piece. We'll win 160 games, and the umps will screw us out of 2.

Signing|Sox|Risky move, overpaid here, they'll regret this.

Injury|Yankees|They don't get hurt. Hypothetically, if they did, the recovery will be speedy with no impact to ability.

Injury|Sox|Everyone is a ticking time bomb. Once hurt, they'll never heal right.[/table]

[BoSox21]

I like how he brought out Yankee examples to veil his criticism. He's trying to counteract the ORS Table, I like that.

[jacksonianmarch]

Stupid use of the table there Dojji

[Dojji]

Almost as bad as your choice of prospect analogies

 

Short season' date=' as nice as it is, can be very, very misleading. I have two examples for you from the yankee side. Justin Snyder and Braedyn Pruitt. [/quote']

 

Braedyn Pruett was 22 years old when he was drafted as a player with multiple years of college experience. However you spell his name, he was definitely supposed to take short season ball by storm.

 

Snyder is a very similar story, Both were older when they were drafted than Roque is right now.

 

And then there's the fact that Pruett and Snyder were drafted in the 22nd and 14th rounds, respectively. Roque is a tenth round pick.

 

On a tangential note, why the heck do parents do that? Do they think that a name is more original if they come up with as odd a spelling as possible?

 

Also, how many different spellings of that particular name are present just within the sport of baseball?

 

Anyway, one of the reasons short season ball is such a terrible predicter of talent is because two different kinds of players can "get it" in short season ball. College players like Pruett and Snyder, and raw high school draftees like Roque. The college guys dominate the high school guys at that level because they often have as many as 3 years more serious development as baseball players by the time the two types meet in short season.

 

The thing about Roque, though, is that as a high school draftee, he was all raw tools when he was drafted. The Sox weren't drafting for what he is (like with a college pick) but for what, with a lot of careful training and many, many repetitions, he might grow to become. So he repeated rookie ball, and halfway through that season, he apparently clicked. Enough so that he earned a promotion to Lowell at age 19 -- a full 2 years younger than Snyder and 3 years younger than Pruett. He then proceeded to finish with an effective run at Lowell, although not as dramatically so as his dominance of rookie ball.

 

And so where does that leave us? Nowhere in particular. The one thing you are actually right about is that Roque has a long way to go. He surely does. However, your terrible prospect comparisons are no reason whatsoever to throw additional doubt on Roque.

 

Also, the whole premise of your argument seems to be implying that I'm pencilling in Roque as a future 2B on the Sox. I'm not ruling it out, but that's certainly far from what I'm doing. My main point isn't that he's going to dominate from here on out. It's that he's put together enough of a good year to make himself interesting, and that he bears watching to see what he does from here.

[jacksonianmarch]

I dont doubt that high school kids in the GCL should bear watching. I just think that making a thread dedicated strictly to one unheralded HS kid in the GCL is a bit overkill, IMO. Cause a lot of these guys flame out when they get moved to the long season leagues. See Angelini, Carmen for examples of that

[Dipre]

I dont doubt that high school kids in the GCL should bear watching. I just think that making a thread dedicated strictly to one unheralded HS kid in the GCL is a bit overkill' date=' IMO.[/b'] Cause a lot of these guys flame out when they get moved to the long season leagues. See Angelini, Carmen for examples of that

 

Ah, the irony.

[Dojji]

I dont doubt that high school kids in the GCL should bear watching. I just think that making a thread dedicated strictly to one unheralded HS kid in the GCL is a bit overkill' date=' IMO. Cause a lot of these guys flame out when they get moved to the long season leagues. See Angelini, Carmen for examples of that[/quote']

 

It's a prospect forum. We talk about prospects here. That means sometimes we start threads to talk about SPECIFIC prospects that grab our attention for whatever reason.

 

Get with the program.

[jacksonianmarch]

Dojji, I am not sure you can even call him a prospect yet. Its too early.

 

And for Dipre, find a place where I made a dedicated thread about an unheralded draft pick who hadnt reached the long season leagues. Go ahead, keep looking.

[jacksonianmarch]

Now, I dont want to dampen your enthusiasm. He is absolutely a guy to watch. But its really, really, really hard to draw anything from just a short season numbers game. I think he bears watching when he cracks the long season leagues.

[Dipre]

Dojji, I am not sure you can even call him a prospect yet. Its too early.

 

And for Dipre, find a place where I made a dedicated thread about an unheralded draft pick who hadnt reached the long season leagues. Go ahead, keep looking.

 

This is a RED SOX FORUM, on the RED SOX PROSPECTS area, he can make as many threads about prospects as he wants, my good sir.

[jacksonianmarch]

that doesnt change the fact that you were wrong, again

[Dipre]

that doesnt change the fact that you were wrong' date=' again[/quote']

 

Lol ok.

 

This is a Yankee forum then.

 

Talkyanks.com?